The Newcomers
by Yolanda Bush
Summary: This story features three new made-up characters: Joni Henderson, her sister Casey, and Casey's husband Eric Jessup. It will be for those who DO NOT SHIP CAROL AND DARYL. It will focus on a storyline made-up about Daryl's childhood, involving the new characters. Please read first chapter for more info!
1. Chapter 1

New character CAST:

Joni Henderson: Jocelin Donahue

Casey Jessup: Jordana Brewster

Eric Jessup: Adam Brody

Info: This fanfic is geared towards those who DO NOT ship Carol and Daryl. It takes place after the episode Internment and will continue throughout the season without paying much attention the actual happenings of the season. Since Daryl isn't in the comics I have made a back story to his childhood.

Chapter One: Newcomers

"Joni, watch out behind you!" Joni Henderson's sister called out through the chaos to alarm her of a walker approaching behind her. Joni whirled around with swift precision and nailed the sucker in the eye with her weapon of choice, a fire axe that she'd found in an old abandoned firehouse forty miles back. She placed her foot on the rotted zombies limp leg to get enough force the rip the tool back out of his skull, then sprinted over to her sister Casey.

Casey was back to back with her husband Eric Jessup, whom everyone simply called Jessup. They were fending off a fierce pack. These walkers had become different. They didn't spread out anymore, they grouped together. It was like they were communicating with each other, which couldn't be possible.

"Joni, what do we do? They're everywhere? We were doomed when we lost the car." Casey informed in fear.

Joni smashed the fire axe down on another and kicked is body out of the way, "This isn't the end. We've made it through worse than this."

"What're we even fighting for anymore? Mom, Dad, Joey, and Callie…They're all dead. We're on our own here." Casey argued back, standing in place with a bloodied ka-bar knife.

"Case, I'm still here. I'm your husband." Jessup spoke up from behind the fearsome baseball bat rigged with nail heads and a curved blade at the top, turning it into an annihilation tool.

Casey moved towards her husband in the midst of the attack, hugging him close to say that she still loved him, but that it was too complicated now with the apocalypse persisting. The two left Joni to handle the last of the pack as they momentarily embraced. Carcasses lay scattered on the road, Joni was coated in thick, black blood and now felt sore and weak from weeding out the pack. She was a few meters away from her biological sister and brother-in-law. Seeing them making googly eyes at each other during a mass murder was grotesque, and plainly annoying to her. Instead of running back to join her trio, one which she always felt third wheel in, she decided to wander down the road just for a moment, to make sure there wasn't more of a herd ready to surprise them. Maybe she could even find as mall water hole to clean herself off in.

Joni pushed her greasy hair out of her face, it had grown long. She could see the brown locks hanging just under her breasts. She wished she could cut it all off to keep out the heat, but alas it served as protection from the sun at least. She set down her bag for a moment and pulled out the water bottle, just as she began to take a drink….She heard it. That hideous hissing that they made. She looked up just quick enough for the thing to lunge down on her. She held the thing above her, screaming for her sister's help. The axe was just to the left of her, but that was when she remembered her last resort tool. She always keep it on her. She reached down into the strap around her waist and pulled out the small screwdriver. She gripped it as hard as she could and then drove the thing straight through the walker's brain.

"Joni!" Casey ran to her side and pushed the re-dead walker off of her younger sister. Casey sat her sister up, gliding her hand through her disheveled brown silk hair. "Did it bite you?"

"No." Joni answered, "I just head my head on the ground. Everything's a little fuzzy…"

Joni's piercing brown eyes widened and glazed off into space; she rubbed her temple and then the back of her head from the intense throbbing pain.

"Shit, you guys." Jessup pointed out another herd, 15 heading straight at them. He grabbed Joni's arm and yanked her back up, "We gotta keep fighting."

Joni shoved the small screwdriver back into her waistband and picked up the fire axe. Jessup ran to the furthest right side to pick up his bat, and Joni walked straight to the middle, landing herself in the epicenter of the herd. The three began the system over again. Soon the whole road was filled with walkers. But that wasn't all. Just up the road, as the three remained unknown to the subject, a car was heading straight at them….And behind the wheel was a woman named Michonne. She had Daryl in the passenger seat, Tyrese and Bob in the back. And to her, all she could see was a herd blocking the only road leading back home.

"I'm gonna have to run them down." She informed.

"You can't, last time we had to lose the damned car. We can't risk it, Michonne." Daryl grumbled.

"This time I'll just hit the middle, and we'll keep driving. There's not enough this time. What other choice do we have?" Michonne asked, speeding up a bit.

"If this backfires, you're to blame for our deaths." Daryl muttered and folded his arms.

"Wait a minute…" Daryl said under his breath. "Look right there, I just saw one fall down."

"So what?" Michonne asked, "Not like they're geniuses."

"But it was different. Looked like something knocked 'em down. Right there I see it!"

"I see it too," Tyrese informed, "Looks like a dude with a bat or something."

Michonne skidded through, paying little attention to the passengers. The car began to break through the group with enough force to send the walkers flying…but something strange happened. The ones right in front of the car fell before she even hit them, and all that was left to maul down was one grl. And she certainly did not look dead. Michonne tried to slam her breaks as hard as she could, but the car couldn't stop in time. Her speed was slowed but the car still made impact with the girl in the road. And she surged into the windshield and then flew off to the side of the car.

"Jesus Christ! Michonne you killed a survivor!" Daryl shouted.

Michonne threw the car into park and grabbed her katanna before exiting the car, the others quickly followed. Daryl kicked aside a walker and ran to the other side of the car.

"NO! My sister!" A loud shrill scream sounded throughout the air.

Daryl appeared on the correct side to see Michonne bent down next to an unconscious woman laying in the road. Her body was sprawled out across the pavement. A new woman and man surfaced next to the body of the girl, bending down next to her.

"She dead?" Daryl asked.

"No," Michonne informed, "Still breathing too. Most of this blood ain't hers. Too dark. Must be a walker's."

"What did you do? My sister!" The new woman shouted through tears. The man comforted her, pulling her into a hug. Her raven brown hair covered her dark face. She was possibly of Mediterranean descent. Her eyes were dark brown and her skin was golden, she looked very similar to the girl on the ground, but perhaps a little older and a little darker toned, with stronger features.

"Jesus Christ . What do we do? You have to save her; my wife won't make it without her sister. We're barely hanging on now." The man, who looked rather boyish, with thick curly brown hair and steely blue eyes, said. He was perhaps a few years younger than the woman he named as his wife.

"Stand back Michonne," Daryl warned, "You and the others watch for more. Let me take a look,"

Michonne gathered Bob and Tyrese and the three stood guard as Daryl kneeled on the pavement to observe the injured girl. She'd been launched over the car and landed on her back to the side of their new vehicle. Her hip looked badly bruised, possibly popped out of place. Hopefully nothing had shattered in her leg. Her elbow was most likely destroyed after falling straight on it. Most likely the bone would needed healing. There were a few abrasions covering her body and a semi-large gouge on the part of her leg that was hit by the car. Overall her injuries shouldn't be extremely life threatening, Daryl figured there was still hope for this girl.

He scoped her neck up carefully, holding her close to examine her eyes and check her breathing. Her mouth began to droop open and he could see that she'd bitten the side of her mouth, tearing the skin open. A stream of blood dripped through the corner of her mouth. Daryl wiped it off with the back of his hand, and then lifted her entire body up off of the pavement. She felt like air in his arms, she was so petite. Clearly the trio hadn't had much to eat lately. She felt malnourished, and far too skinny. But she was pretty, maybe in her early thirties.

"Where are you going? Where are you taking her?" The distraught sister screeched,

"You people are coming with us. We have a camp….We have medically supplies. We can save her. We're just down the road." Daryl calmly informed.

"No. We're not just going with you. We don't have any idea what kind of people you are…" The man began.

"We're good enough. You don't have many other options now do you? We'll arrange everything with our leader when he returns from his run. We don't usually let strangers in. So consider yourself lucky. You won't make it out here much longer."

"Daryl…What're you doing?" Michonne whispered in Daryl's ear as he sat back in the back seat with the girl still in his arms.

"Tyrese take the passenger seat and Bob…I think you can ride in the trunk to let our new friends have a seat." Daryl targeted Bob for the mishap that went down earlier. He put up no fight and opened the trunk to situate himself.

"Get in people. We have a few questions before we can let you into our camp." Daryl announced as everyone piled in. Michonne started up the car and began to continue down the road.

Daryl kept the girl in his arms, as her faint breath coated his neck. He could tell that the newcomers were uncomfortable being in the car, as well as uncomfortable with a complete stranger holding their family member like a child.

"First off….Names," Daryl broke the air.

The two held each other, the wife shaking madly with anger behind her eyes. "I'm Eric Jessup. Most just call me Jessup….This is my wife Casey…." He introduced them both, staring directly at the redneck holding his sister-in-law.

"And this one?" Daryl asked, lifting the girl a bit.

"That's Joni," Casey's voice cracked as she fired the answer quickly.

"I'm Daryl. Up front is Michonne and Tyrese, and in the trunk is Bob Stookey. Our leader's name is Rick, you'll be meeting him soon if you wish to become part of the group. And trust me, you'll want to. We gotta rule…We ask three questions before we can let anyone through our walls. First off, how many walkers you kill?"

"uh, that's kinda hard to keep track off. Too many to count. We've been out on the road for three days, no sleep, no food except what we could scrounge off of the land. It's like these things are evolving. Wild packs of them, not just one or two scattered along a trail. We've all had to kill those things." Jessup answered again.

"Fair enough. But now the real question, how many people did you kill?"

Eric Jessup looked out the window for a second, clearly pained by the question, "Me personally…" His voice sounded off with self-hatred as his lip began to quiver, "I killed one. And his name was James Henderson. He was Casey and Joni's father….He was bitten. He would've turned anyways, I ended it before that could happen. And I have to live with that every day."

"I've yet to kill a live person, but Joni…She's another story. Bad things seem to follow her around. She's killed three. Two of them she was just putting down though….They were our step- brother and step-sister. Both got bitten almost 8 months ago. The other…He wasn't bitten, but he was a dirty piece of shit. We were staying with a family that had a house on the outskirts of some old town just about two months ago. Their son was a known sex-offender, which they forgot to mention. He took a liking to my sister. We woke up and she wasn't in her room. Me and Eric searched for her when we heard screaming…coming from their shed. We barged in and…He had her tied up. Eric knocked the sucker out and we untied Joni but when we were about to run he jumped up and grabbed her….She shot him without a second thought. And I would've done the same thing if given the chance. The scum deserved to die after that."

"Well, you answered the third question…Which was why you killed them," Daryl replied to Casey's story.


	2. Chapter 2

(Picks up at the very end of Episode internment, when the group returns from their run.)

Chapter 2: The First Night

Rick opened the gate to the unfamiliar car, knowing that it was their people. The green van pulled through the gap and came to a sudden halt. The first to unload was Tyrese. He all but jumped out of the car and grabbed Rick, "How's Sasha?"

When Rick couldn't provide a good enough answer Tyrese took off with the meds to find his sister. Rick was stunned to find that in the midst of the chaos, unfamiliar faces were seen.

"Michonne what's going on?" Rick asked.

"Family of three, picked them up on the way back. They desperately need our help. The only one that sounding at all threatening was the injured girl. The man is nothing short of a wuss with a bat and his wife is a typical woman, only killing walkers when she absolutely has to. Look, this wasn't my decision. Daryl was the one to let the total strangers into our cars. I went along cos my conscience was telling me that hitting a girl in the middle of the road and then leaving her there to die would be bad on my reputation." Michonne whispered her information quickly, "What the hell happened here?"

"Long story," Rick summed it up.

Daryl began to get out of the car, carrying the hurt and fragile girl, "Rick, where do I put 'er? She needs help, quick."  
"Cell block with the rest of the sick people," Rick answered.

"You out a yer mind?" He yelled back defensively, "She's hurt, not sick. She'll die in there if she catches that thing."

"Please, don't kill my sister," The woman lunged out of the car, as he husband grabbed her out of the air from under her arms as if she was a rag doll.

"Where do you suggest then?" Rick followed Daryl as he began carrying her towards the building.

"Just put her in an empty bunk, keep the other two in a separate one in case she…You know, doesn't make it," Daryl whispered so the sister couldn't hear.

"I'll make this one exception because it ours fault she's in this position. Don't think we'll be taking in any stray off the street. We can't trust people like we used to." Rick said, heatedly.

Daryl hurriedly carried the girl into the cell block, and then set her down on an empty bunk. Soon enough Rick and the distraught family members, as well as Michonne and Carl followed in.

"We need a doctor, er something." Daryl inferred, turning back to the crowd.

"They're all in the sick ward Daryl…I don't know what you want us to do. She's hurt real bad. Has she waken up at all?" Rick responded unenthusiastically.

"Ugh a couple a times she moaned and popped her eyes open. Where's Carol, Carol can help. She's goods with the medical stuff."

"Yeah, about that." Rick looked down at the ground, "We need to talk. She…She's fine, but she won't be able to help right now."

"Fine, then. How about I just do all this shit myself? I been on my own basically since I was a kid. Given myself stitches before even. Get me the supplies; I'll do what I can." Daryl commanded with anger. "Michonne, stay behind and help me out?"  
"Sure," She answered., moving towards the bunk containing the hurt girl. She stepped through the crowd and then turned towards the couple to assert, "Listen you folk. We don't know you, but we got troubles in here. Lot of our people are sick. You best not pull any funny business If you plan on seeing your sister alive."

"You people act like we're the devil in disguise. Please, we just care about Joni." The man answered with fire.

"We been betrayed a lot, we've had feuds with other groups. Trust ain't something that comes naturally anymore. You people been on your own a lot. You don't understand what civilization is like anymore. It's cruel nowadays. People have gone mad with power. One in particular." Michonne shouted into the man's face.

"Your group leader?" He asked.

"No, a previous. Deviant by the name the Governor. Be glad you weren't sucked up into his sham of a group. I don't know how Rick is gonna treat you, but whatever you do, don't dare cross him. You take what you get and you don't ask for anything more."

Rick returned with Carl moments later, "I got some gauze, bandages, painkillers, fresh water and some alcohol to clean out the wounds. Do what you can. I have business to do elsewhere," Rick looked directly towards the newcomers, "You two come with me please. I got some questions to ask. Stuff to clear, before we let you stay for good."

Sorry beginning is kinda slow, It'll get better I promise!


End file.
